1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes dryer and, more particularly, to a drum for a clothes dryer which is capable of preventing target items to be dried from being twisted, entangled and damaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a clothes dryer performs drying of items to be dried (referred to as ‘target items’ hereinafter) by blowing air heated by a heater into a rotating drum mounted therein. The related art clothes dryers can be divided by type into an exhaust (vented) type clothes dryer and a condensing type clothes dryer according to how the moist air generated while drying target items is treated.
The exhaust type clothes dryer discharges, i.e., vents, the moist air to the exterior, while the condensing type clothes dryer condenses the moist air discharged from the drum by using a condenser to condense moisture from the air and send the de-humidified air to the drum, thus re-circulating the air.
The condensing type dryer generally includes a drum in which the laundry (namely, the target items) to be dried is loaded, a filter that filters out debris, a heat exchanging unit (or condenser) that condenses out moisture from the laundry through heat exchanging, a fan that facilitates the drying by generating an air flow, a heater that heats the air to accelerate drying, and ducts that connect the components.
FIG. 1A is a right side interior view of the prior art condensing type clothes dryer, FIG. 1B is a top internal view of the clothes dryer in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 selectively shows a drum, a belt and a motor in the dryer of FIG. 1A. The arrows ‘I’ in FIGS. 1A and 1B indicate the flow of external air and the arrows ‘II’ indicate the flow of circulating air.
With reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B, in the prior art dryer, a drum 11 that receives target items is rotatably installed within a main body 10 having a door 12 installed at its front side. The drum 11 is connected via a belt 19 with a motor 17 installed at a lower portion of the main body 10 so as to be rotated.
A condenser 13 is installed at a lower portion of the main body 10, and condenses moisture from high temperature and high moisture air circulating through the drum 11 to dry the circulating air. Front and rear sides of the condenser 13 are respectively connected with circulation ducts 14a and 14b respectively connected with front and rear sides of the drum 11. Through the circulation ducts 14, the air discharged through the drum 11 is introduced again into the drum 11 after passing through the condenser 13.
A heater 15 that heats the air which has passed through the condenser 13 and a circulation fan 16 that forcibly circulates the air through the circulation ducts 14a and 14b are respectively installed at the circulation ducts 14a and 14b. The circulation fan 16 is connected with another end of the shaft of the motor 17 that drives the drum 11.
In order to condense the air circulating through the circulation duct 14a by heat exchanging at the condenser 13, external cold air is supplied to the condenser 13. For this purpose, an external air supply duct 18 communicating with the outside is connected with one side of the condenser 13 and a cooling fan 20 that forcibly draws external air in through the external air supply duct 18 and discharges it into the main body 10 and a cooling fan driving motor 21 are installed at the other side of the condenser 13 where the external air supply duct 18 is connected. Reference numeral 22 indicates a filter that filters out debris such as waste pieces of thread from the air discharged into the circulation duct 14a through the front side of the drum 11.
A water receiver (not shown) for collecting condensation water dropped after being generated during the condensing process is installed at a lower portion of the condenser 13, and a pump 23 is installed in order to send the condensation water collected in the water receiver to a condensation water storage tank 2.
The process of drying laundry in a clothes dryer having the construction as described above will now be described.
With reference to FIG. 2A, the belt 19 connected with a driving shaft of the motor 17 is wound on an outer circumferential surface of the drum 11 to transfer the rotary force from the motor 17 to the drum 11. A plurality of baffles 11′ are mounted on the inner surface of the drum and move to baffle and tumble the target items during the forward or backward rotation of the drum 11. Herein, the baffles 11′ serve to push the target items upward within the drum 11 in the operation of the clothes dryer.
When a large load of target items is received in the drum 11, the target items are apt to become entangled due to frictional contact between the baffles 11′ and the target items during operation of the dryer. In addition, when the rotation of the drum 11 is changed from a forward direction to a backward direction or from the backward direction to the forward direction, the baffles 11′ and the clothes (namely, the target items to be dried) contact frictionally, causing the target items to become entangled and possibly damaged.